{"id":7706,"date":"2017-03-07T10:53:42","date_gmt":"2017-03-07T15:53:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/?p=7706"},"modified":"2017-03-07T10:55:36","modified_gmt":"2017-03-07T15:55:36","slug":"msea-demands-hogan-withdraw-cooper-nomination","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/?p=7706","title":{"rendered":"MSEA Demands Hogan Withdraw Cooper Nomination"},"content":{"rendered":"

From the Maryland State Education Association (MSEA) press release:<\/em><\/p>\n

Educators Urge Hogan to Withdraw School Board Nomination<\/h5>\n

Annapolis, Maryland \u2013 <\/strong>Last night, Gov. Larry Hogan\u2019s appointee for the State Board of Education, Brandon Cooper, went before the Senate Executive Nominations Committee for his confirmation hearing. During the hearing, senators questioned Cooper on his lack of experience with education policy, his employer\u2019s advocacy for school privatization, and his troubling legal history\u2014including drunk driving, failure to appear in court, driving with a suspended license, and failure to pay state taxes.<\/p>\n

In light of Cooper\u2019s highly unusual disqualifications<\/a> for a member of the state\u2019s highest education policymaking body, the Maryland State Education Association\u2014the statewide educators\u2019 union representing more than 73,000 teachers and education support professionals\u2014is calling on Gov. Hogan to withdraw Cooper\u2019s appointment.<\/p>\n

MSEA Director of Legislative Affairs, Sean Johnson, released the following statement:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cWhile we have concerns with many of Gov. Hogan\u2019s appointments to the State Board of Education\u2014of whom, only one of ten has any experience working in a Maryland public school\u2014we do not usually object to their confirmation. But considering Mr. Cooper\u2019s consistent disregard for state law and his complete lack of experience with Maryland public schools and education policy, Maryland\u2019s educators have no choice but to urge Gov. Hogan to withdraw his misguided selection.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is disappointing that Gov. Hogan either did not subject his own appointments to the same level of scrutiny that he has insisted upon for new delegate appointments or was aware of Mr. Cooper\u2019s troubling legal history and simply looked the other way.<\/p>\n

\u201cBetween drunk driving, failure to pay state taxes, advocating for policies that would dismantle public education, and a complete lack of experience with Maryland public schools, Mr. Cooper should be nowhere near the State Board of Education and its far-reaching authority over our kids\u2019 education. Gov. Hogan should meet the standards he has set for others and withdraw Mr. Cooper\u2019s name from consideration.\u201d<\/p>\n

——————<\/p>\n

The Senate President’s tough questioning<\/a> of Cooper at the hearing does not bode well for his nomination:<\/em><\/p>\n

“How can you make decisions for the state of Maryland when you don’t pay your taxes to the state of Maryland?” Miller asked. The Calvert County Democrat was referring to Cooper’s record of having tax liens filed against him by the Office of the Comptroller on multiple occasions.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From the Maryland State Education Association (MSEA) press release: Educators Urge Hogan to Withdraw School Board Nomination Annapolis, Maryland \u2013 Last night, Gov. Larry Hogan\u2019s appointee for the State Board of Education, Brandon Cooper, went before the Senate Executive Nominations Committee for his confirmation hearing. During the hearing, senators questioned Cooper on his lack of … Continue reading MSEA Demands Hogan Withdraw Cooper Nomination<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[323,1912],"tags":[1913],"class_list":["post-7706","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-msea","category-state-board-of-education","tag-brandon-cooper"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4mKJE-20i","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7706","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7706"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7706\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7709,"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7706\/revisions\/7709"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7706"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7706"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7706"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}